Poor network experience fault of iPhone, not AT&T?

It has always been AT&T taking blame for the poor call quality on the Apple iPhone. Dropped calls, no signal, slow data speeds-it had been assumed that it was the network holding back the iPhone, not the other way around. This made a strong case for a Verizon branded iPhone so that the vastly superior iPhone quality could thrive under a good network connection. But suppose the basic assumption was wrong. According to a story in the N.Y. Times, it is actually the fault of the iPhone why the network connection has been picked by the device's owners as the worst part of owning the phone. The story quotes several wireless firms as saying that the AT&T pipeline is actually superior to Verizon's network. This is the cellphone world's version of a second gun in the Grassy Knoll. In other words, what has been passed around so many times that it has seemingly become fact, appears to be debunked and a new story could be ready to get passed around.

Global Wireless Solutions is one of the companies listed in the story. After placing more than 3 million calls this year, concluding more than 2 million wireless data sessions and covering 3 million miles of asphalt, the company concludes that AT&T's data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition which includes Big Red. Conducting 4.7 million tests on smartphones for the top 4 U.S. carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile). a company called Root Wireless went to 7 major metropolitan areas and concluded that AT&T had faster download speeds than Verizon did and also had 75% or more of it's signal strength more often than Big Red had. These findings seem to go against the results recently published in Consumer Reports where Verizon was named the best carrier and AT&T was at the bottom in fourth place. The reason for the difference could be that Root Wireless' software will not run in the background on the iPhone which means other smartphones had to be tested besides Apple's touchscreen handset. You don't have to be a member of Mensa to understand that if AT&T's coverage improves that much when the iPhone is excluded, perhaps the problem is with the device-not the network.

I would love to meet half the people on this site face to face, take their retarded phones out of their pockets and beat them senseless with it.
Anarkie: Are you telling me that EVERY other manufacturer of phones who has an app store has 100% AMAZING-USABLE-NON-NOVELTY APPS?!?!?! Get a fucking clue.
Those valid commenters, carry on.

Hova, I'm not trying to be jerk, but I'm inclined to believe you must be a liberal with that kind of logic. He made a joke and you automatically jumped to the conclusion that he was implying that every other app not on the iPhone was a "100% AMAZING-USABLE-NON-NOVELTY..."
Maybe he isn't the one that needs to get a clue...

Notice the report comes out after all the things that have been done to downplay At&T's network.... Really???? Got to love how firms suddenly come out with information after bad news is given trying to give hope to something that is in trouble.

I wonder if AT&T has any ownership in this firm.
I do agree that AT&T has more bandwidth the Verizon, but I think it's a network problem. They need to expand their 3g coverage. I'm sure these tests were all in 3g area's. I have both AT&T and Verizon, my AT&T is great in a few locations, but horrible everywhere else. Verizon is good everywhere.
That said, I hate Verizon's customer service. It is hard to do business with them, I haven't been impressed with the local stores since I moved. If someone else had the coverage they did, I'd go somewhere else.

I dunno. I have a friend at work who's been on the original iPhone since it came out, without a problem. He just went to the 3Gs, and it's nothing but dropped calls and lost data connections. He's thinking of going back to the original.

This is comical. I laugh at this new propaganda that its not the network. Seems kinda suspicious that now that the exclusivity of the iphone to att is most definitely ending that att would encourage a propaganda tool to regain clout knowing that once the iphone leaves they will stand a huge chance a being gobbled up due to the mass amount of people that will leave do to att's arrogance surrounding the iphone and there well know worthless data network. lets face the facts that have supported that att has had a horrible data network and not just for iphone users but for BB and Palm and any other phone or air card that used att data network report that there coverage and speeds are far from what they advertise. in major cities they do have fast and strong data but the rest is edge not 3g adn very spotty and weak. att is realizing that if they dont try to do something about this FACT that will loos thousands instantly if not millions once the iphone becomes available to a network know and proven to have the best and fastest data out there to date! (verizon) This smells as bogus as man made global warming only the facts will come out surrounding this one since this is not a way to scam more taxes out of everyone. the question that needs to be answered is why has att lost 3 lawsuits surrounding false advertisement of there data network with the iphone, claiming that it had specifically 3g coverage were it clearly did not. att sold iphones requiring data in areas that did not and could not support the 3g requirements of the phone. why didnt this news come out when they were in litigation over the law suits or the many reports of the weakness of the data network? why now?

The funny thing is to me is that phonearena was sent this information over a week ago as well as the other sites like this one.
Here is a thought. I sure do hope VZW gets the iPhone someday. The funny thing is that no matter how big the 3G coverage is on VZW, it will operate like the EDGE coverage on ATT. Apple will have to change it's commercials. You simply cannot make a voice call and have a data session at the same time. LTE will improve that issue. Remember this though, as of today there is not a single LTE phone or any other type of LTE device on the market that works on VZW or ATT.

Big RED its verizon, because they are a bunch of commie Pieces of Crap anyways. But i Would love to see what the iPhone would do to their slower transferring data network. Its going to make the 3G S look like a racecar hah

It is the phone. I own a Pantech C170 and an iPhone 3GS. My 3GS has had issues connecting to calls and has had times it dropped calls when it had 5 bars of service. Now the Pantech... I have never dropped a call once on it... The Pantech is the most used phone on my plan eating up 1000 minutes out of 1400 and using 2000 m2m and A-list.
Now simple reasoning here. If i have better call connection rates (the pantech has only dropped 1 call in 1 year) with a different phone then the problem is device specific. If its the network then my issues would be the same no matter the device but since it is device specific issue well.... At&t cannot do anything about it. This is what happens when a manufacturer controls there warranty service.. Watch when VzW gets the iPhone and people start calling their service junk due to drop calls yet everyone that doesn't have an iphone doesn't complain.

29.dandirk (unregistered)

AT&T can do something about it, stop selling the phone and tell Apple to fix the issue. They have exclusive right, Apple would be significantly hurt.
But they won't too much money and not enough morality.
Well if issues are truly hardware/phone related.

All content (phone reviews, news, specs, info), design and layouts are Copyright 2001-2016 phoneArena.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited! Privacy . Terms of use . Cookies . Team